By LINDA ASHTON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, June 6, 2003

YAKIMA -- The Yakama Nation has given the federal government notice that it plans to sue the U.S. Department of Energy, contending that the DOE has failed to protect the Columbia River from pollution from the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The 60-day notice is required before a lawsuit can be filed.

"From time immemorial, the Columbia River and everything in it have been the lifeblood of the Yakama people," Ross Sockzehigh, Tribal Council chairman, said this week.

"We have to do whatever is necessary to see that our river is fully healed and the salmon runs restored."

The notice addresses what the tribe contends are natural resource damages caused by the release of hazardous substances into the Columbia River.

The tribe said it believes contamination of the river with radioactive waste and other dangerous substances has contributed to declining Northwest salmon populations in the last 50 years.

The Yakama Nation said it was disappointed with progress on the cleanup at the 586-square-mile reservation, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the country after 40 years of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear arsenal.

"Starting the process of suing the federal government over Hanford's destruction of resources is a big step for the Yakama Nation," Sockzehigh said. "It is a step we take with great care. The Cold War and the operation of the nuclear factories at Hanford required huge sacrifices by this region.

"The Columbia River and its fish were sacrificed. What has happened, has happened.

"But now it is time for the federal government to clean up the mess and restore the natural resources that have been lost. It is not just our burden. It is the entire country's obligation."

The Yakama Nation intends to sue under federal Superfund law provisions, which allow tribes and other governments to sue polluters who discharge hazardous substances that damage natural resources.

Sockzehigh said damages sought in the lawsuit could reach hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

River water used to cool plutonium-producing reactors at Hanford and then returned to the river polluted it with radioactive material and other dangerous substances from the 1940s until the 1960s, the tribe contends.

Some of these radioactive materials such as uranium and strontium remain in the river sediment, while radioactive and hazardous wastes buried or dumped at Hanford years ago have worked their way into groundwater.

No one at Energy Department offices in Richland or Washington, D.C., immediately returned calls for comment.